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Easy Science Project Idea for High School Science Project

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 04:57:42 +0000

Here you can create a simple electric motor. You will not be hooking this up to anything except itself. It is a good demonstration for your science fair project. Here is all you will need for this experiment. This is a great High School or middle school project.

A battery – a AA type works well A small magnet that is about the size of a quarter or nickel A piece of wire approximately 6 to 10 inches long
Steps to complete the experiment:
Take the wire and make a small hook in the one end and hold it so that it touches the top of the battery where the end protrudes. This is the positive or + end. Now wrap the wire in a spiral fashion around and down the battery. When you get to the end of the battery you will have wire left over. Let a little wire extend out to the side that will touch the magnet edge. Place the magnet at the bottom of the battery and make sure the wire touches the edge of the magnet. Using a nail make a little dent in the top of the positive end so that the wire sits in one spot and stays there while it spins. As the magnet sits on the table with the battery on top you should be able to take the coiled wire on and off the group. This is good for the demonstration because once you have the wire touching the top of the battery and the end of the wire touching the bottom side of the magnet the wire will spin around continually. Now for your science project research portion. You need to learn why the wire will spin around the battery and magnet. What fields are created by the magnet? What does the battery have that will help create the wire movement.

By: Lesa Bolt

Science Fair Projects – Complete Guide to a Winning Science Project Step 2 – Topic Research

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:19:05 +0000

First, get yourself a spiral notebook to be used as your journal. All science fair projects need to have notes taken as you work though them. This notebook is where you will record your topic research and your project research. It should have your ideas as well as those you get from printed information or from other people. It will also need to include descriptions of your experiment along with diagrams, graphs and other recorded notes of your results.

You will want all information written in the journal to be as neat as possible and make sure to include the date. This will be your complete and accurate record of your project from beginning to end. The information in the journal will be used to write your written report. Your journal will be displayed with your completed project.

Selecting a Topic

You want to get the best grade possible on your project, win awards at the fair and learn anything new about science you can. Judges will evaluate the science fair projects on a number of criteria. You will be able to achieve some or all of these as long as you spend the time working on your project it needs, so you will want to choose a topic you are interested in. If you can, it is best to choose a topic and stick with it. Don’t bounce around from topic to topic.

Look at the World Around You

By using an exploring question you can turn things you see everyday into a science project. For an example, the grass in your neighbor’s yard is always greener than in your yard. Why is his grass greener than ours? You have a question about plants. Could you turn it into a project? If you keep thinking about it, you might start to realize there is some nutrient in his soil that is not in yours.

If you keep your eyes and ears open and you start asking more exploring questions, you will find numerous things that could be turned into a project. You may wonder about the difference in paints. There are many questions you may have, but you don’t always ask them.

Find a Topic in Science Magazines

If you find a topic in a science magazine, do not expect them to come with instructions on how to do the experiment. You will have to come up with that one on your own. Just look at facts that seeming interesting to you. If they lead you to ask and exploring question, you may have a project topic. You can even try looking into a science fair project book or Science Experiment Books.

Three Steps to a Topic

You have decided to enter a project into the science fair, but you really don’t know where to start. The first thing you have to do is come up with a project idea. Start with a topic that interests you will have fun and learn something while working on this project. Here are a few hints for coming up with a project idea.

Look at these ideas and find a topic that interests you.

People Animals Plants Rocks Space Weather Electricity

There are many projects you can come up with using any one of these topic ideas. Come up with a question you have about one of these topics. You can start off with a simple question and make it a better question. Such as, “Why does it rain?” You want to get more specific about your question. So then you expound on it to become “How much rain did California get last year compared to 5 years ago?” Good topics for science fair projects include anything that you can do an experiment on to see if it is true or false.

Categories of Topic Ideas
Check with your teacher, but usually every fair has a list of categories. You may need to ask the advice of your teacher to find the right category for your project. You must have your project entered into the right category to win. If your project happened to get entered into the wrong category, you can be penalized because the judges are required to judge a project based on its category. For a list of categories, check out the resources on the web site below:

By: Aurora Lipper

Conducting a Science Fair Experiment in Middle School

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 08:26:21 +0000

Some middle school students get excited when it is time to do a science fair project. Others tremble in fear at the thought of the work and time it takes to do such an experiment. By the time a child reaches middle school, the subjects are more complex and involved than they were in elementary school. Here are some ideas and tips for middle school science projects that should help even the most uninterested student take notice.

The first step to doing a middle school science project is to pick a subject that interests the student. It is a lot easier to complete a project when it is fun and exciting. Many students may have a hobby and they don’t even realize that there may be a method behind what they love. For instance, if your child is into working on jigsaw puzzles, explain to them that they can do a science project on “Brain Power.” This relates to psychology, which is science of the mind or mental processes. The topic of psychology opens a world of ideas and presentations that a student can do a project on. They can pick the broad topic of psychology, or pinpoint their project to human behavior or how the brain functions.

The next step in working on a middle school science project involves research. The student must gather data and cite sources for their research. Great places to utilize for this task include using the Internet, encyclopedias, magazines, and specific books on their topic. Data is extremely important to a science project because it helps to prove or disprove a theory, and it helps people understand why things happen the way they do. A student must also be prepared to write a short report about their findings on their project.

Another reason that research is so important to a science project is that there is a good chance people are going to ask questions about the project. This part of a presentation can make some students freeze in their tracks, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Thorough research and understanding of what you read will make this part of the project easier. A student should act relaxed and natural when they are discussing their projects with others, and being prepared ahead of time will help relieve any sense of anxiety.

Conducting an experiment is the best part of a middle school science project. This is where the student gets down and dirty, and conducts a physical action that backs up their data and report. It is important that the student have all of the necessary materials to do the experiment accurately. It is no fun to show off your hard work and not have your experiment work right. The student should also document each step of the experiment on paper in a way that someone else could read their notes and do the experiment the exact same way.

Finally, a student should present their experiment with an interesting and eye-catching display. It should attract onlookers to come and see what is going at your exhibit. Consider having handouts that people can take with them, present your display with colors and clipart, and, if possible, wear a uniform that helps portray what type of scientist would study the field based around your project. In other words, be creative.

As you can see, a middle school science project can be fun and rewarding. It takes effort. It takes time. But, the finished project is something that students can be proud of.

By: Jordan Matthews